Ingredients
Cream Puff Pastry (makes about 12)*
1 cup sifted flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 cup water
1/3 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
4 large eggs
For Italian lemon-flavored custard (or pastry cream)*
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
Zest of 1 lemon (finely grated)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups scalded (whole) milk
2 to 3 tablespoons flour
Icing sugar for dusting
*For similar recipes from first generation Italian Canadians who grew up in Molise in the 1930s check out Zia Rosina's recipes as well as those from Olga and Rita Palazzo.
** For the standard and/or professional method of making cream puffs see the recipe, "Standard Cream Puff Pastry Dough"
Directions
To make cream puff pastry dough:
Add salt and sugar to the flour and sift.
Heat water and add butter. Cook until the butter and water mixture boils.
Remove from heat.
Add flour all at once to the butter and water mixture until a ball forms and leaves the side of the pan.
Allow to cool for three to four minutes.
Place the flour and butter mixture in an electric mixer bowl (Professionals do NOT place the mixture in an electric mixer bowl, they do the next few steps by hand. One can do this, of course, but it will take a lot more effort.)
Add one egg at a time to the mixture, beating continuously, until the mixture is nice and smooth.
Cover the bowl and let the batter rest for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 375 degree F.
Line two aluminum cookie sheets with silicon baking mats.
Drop 3 to 4 tablespoons of the batter onto the cookie sheet for each cream puff, swirling it on top (Shaping the cream puff as one would like it to appear, i.e, larger on the bottom and smaller on the top) .
*Place the cream puff pastries 3 inches apart on the cookie sheet.
When all the cream puffs have been made, bake them for about 40 minutes or until they are a light golden color.
Remove from the oven and cut a very small slit on the side to get the air out and then return to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes or so.
When the cream puffs are a golden brown and look more or less ready turn off the oven and keep them there to dry for another 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cool.
*Alternatively, one can use a muffin pan, lining each muffin container with silicon mat and then placing the batter in each muffin container. This is definitely NOT the professional way, but it does simplify the process.
To make Italian lemon-flavored custard:
Mix egg yolks, sugar, lemon zest, and vanilla.
Slowly add hot milk, beating constantly.
Add flour, beating constantly.
Place mixture in a sauce pan and cook over low heat until it boils and then thickens, all the while stirring it (and making sure it does not burn). When it has the look of a custard or thick cream, it's ready (Takes anywhere from 6 to 10 minutes).
Cool.
When all the cream puffs have been made and have cooled, you can either wrap them in clear plastic and keep them ready for when you will need them (Best to add the stuff prior to serving them), or if you need them right away, cut them in half and place about a tablespoon or more of the custard filling on the bottom half of each cream puff, and then replace its top.
Keep in the fridge until ready to serve.
Just before serving dust with icing sugar.
Notes
It's hard to believe but these pastry puffs are really easy to do, and they taste as good, if not better, than some of the store-bought ones. Of course, it all depends on how the cream puff pastry dough turns out. And the success of that depends a lot on the type of equipment one has, the weather, one's mood etc. Generally speaking most recipes for pastry puffs are all the same, whether they are from Italian cookbooks or North American ones. Admittedly, I did add a touch of baking power and most recipes don't call for it. I found that the baking powder did no harm, in fact, I think it helped. Anyway recipes for "zeppole di San Giuseppe" are centuries old, except the original recipes did not contain any ricotta or custard. Basically, they were yet another sweet fritter sweet [For an older version of "zeppole di San Giuseppe" see the category "Fritters"]. By the late 19th century "zeppole di San Giuseppe" with cream fillings started to appear in Naples. Actually whether they originated in Naples or in Sicily is up for grabs, in any case, the updated version took off. Suddenly, many regions in the South (and in the North too) made these lovely pastry cream puffs on March 19th.Please note that in Molise's small towns and villages very few people did the cream puff version of "Zeppole di San Giuseppe" (Would have cost too much!). Well-to-do households, possibly those in the larger centers such the region's capital, Campobasso, might have indulged in such delicacies but few country folk did. Those who lived in the countryside generally made sweet fritters such as "screpelle" [see Fritters] on the Feast Day of Saint Joseph. Cream puffs were reserved for weddings and baptisms. Nonetheless, most Italian-Canadians, regardless of whether they were born in small Southern Italian villages or in large cities now purchase "Zeppole di San Giuseppe" at their local pastry shops for the San Giuseppe's feast day. |
